another solid year monk. First off, I am going and it's going to be fun, but this is without a doubt the weakest Coachella lineup (although it almost looks that way at the beginning every year). Yes there are some awesome bands on there, but I think the two weekend set up made them lose out on some quality acts. I hope we get a couple adds: James Blake, Little Dragon, Fleet Foxes, MMJ, Holy Ghost!, Dr. Dog. Thanks.

@3:52 I was thinking the same thing. I'm not super knowledgeable about the sahara artists, but this year looks really empty in terms of real artists that people want to see. It looks like it is geared towards teenagers that know about top 40 music or something; Avicii, SHM, Kaskade, David Guetta?? Wtf

I know I knwo , people bitch every year BUT. Im a little dissapointed... Is it just me or is there like 50 acoustic guitar type artists on here. Straight up mid-west fest right here people. Not enough untz for Sahara... SHM ... WTF

They could and should just get ridof anything remotely connected tothe Sarah tent. Its so annoying trying to get food anywhere near the Sahara tent while my ears bleed from the shit coming from that stage.

So anyone want to guess why the message board has been blocked? maybe they're trying to delay the inevitable negative onslaught by board regulars while they try to woo a new generation of Coachella attendees...

the funny thing to me is that when people bitch and moan how coachella has "sold out" this is exactly the kind of lineup that they used to have. Instead of getting lame bro headliners like Coldplay, Foos, No Doubt they went indie rock, they got a lot of ridiculously rare acts, some crazy reunions, and brought us some stuff nobody saw coming. I think this is the best Coachella lineup since I've been going, and most everybody I've talked to who isn't posting here agrees. The Coachella message boards will not be full of negative comments. The Bonnaroo boards are all like "fuck Coachella is so good this year Bonnaroo can't compete with this".

^I think so too. I'm looking at this lineup and there are honestly like 5 acts I've seen before. That's what I love about Coachella (even though they recycled the Black Keys again). They manage to get new shit every year.

So does anyone really believe that Black Sabbath story? Also, a few things:

1. I thought New Order would have been a shoe-in? Also, Kraftwerk and Gary Numan (to make up for 2010)?2. Does anyone think these guys or other adds will be forthcoming? 3. Why is Squeeze and the Buzzcocks in such tiny font?

I think 2-3 more fan favorites would have tipped the scales for a lot of people. Aphex Twin, Kraftwerk, and New Order would silence a bunch of the folks hoping for a bit more (mainly because they're seemingly within reach - of course we don't know what's feasible behind the scenes, but still). That, or of course Daft Punk. But whatever.

Food for thought: you wonder if future fests could be organized with a bit more transparency and fan buy-in. Not an outright kickstarter model, but maybe with a bit more visibility into the booking process and voting for where those dollars go. Of course, that would remove a lot of the fun and suspense, not to mention expert care that organizers have (very often it's the acts you didn't know you wanted that make these fests so great).

Of course, what the super fans want isn't necessarily what sells tickets... But that doesn't seem to be a problem for Coachella regardless. But, for example, to hear from GV that "we talked to Kraftwerk and it wasn't going to be possible" - that's the sort of stuff that would give the hardcore a lot more faith. I think?

If you think this is the best Coachella lineups you're right!!! It's definitely in the top 13 lineups ever!!!

Besides a couple of good reunion acts and the decent billing of some indie bands how does this lineup wow you at all compared to other years?

I'd love to see some adds. We'll get some, we do every year. Hopefully they're substantial. Aphex would be great. MMJ. James Blake. Fleet Foxes.

To the anon who said they'd been there 5 times, I assume you started in 07. How is this lineup anywhere NEAR that lineup. If we get a couple adds that would tip the scale of this being a good lineup to a great lineup, but right now it's pretty boring.

Every year I have to figure out how I'm gonna narrow down 45 - 50 artists I want to see to 30 (give or take a few). This year there's not even 30 bands I really am REALLY yearning to see. Of course the last time there was this few of bands i wanted to see was 10' and that was one of the most fun years for me.

the electronica is absolutely lacking this year. Modeselektor, Miike Snow, Amon Tobin, FlyLo (why is he billed so low btw?), Justice, SBTRKT, Sub Focus, Nero, Calvin Harris, & Shadow are all solid acts I hope to see (I'll even throw Girl Talk in there for the fun factor)...especially stoked for those first 4 listed...but GV mostly just stacked up super mainstream, played out electro/prog house dj's (SHM, Afrojack, Guetta, Kaskade, Ingrosso, Avicii), which is not exciting at all.

where's the big, main stage-worthy live electronica act that can bring something unique & original?? you know, like a Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Groove Armada, Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Prodigy, even a Royksopp or Crystal Method, etc.?? not one of these calibre acts on the bill = very disappointing.

if they bumped the Keys down & added one of those types of acts to close the main stage on Fri. night, I think that would be HUGE...not holding my breath though obviously.

I get the Sahara disappointment. It does look like EDC. But the thing is you people are now demanding Royksopp, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy and Underworld like they were realistic possibilities to begin with. Those are insanely rare acts and big gets that I'm sure GV would have killed to have on their poster, but they will play when they are ready (if they ever are).

Realistically this Sahara looks like 2010 minus Plastikman and Orbital. I don't blame them for booking Guetta and SHM, as cheesy as they are those are big gets and Guetta has played before anyway. I do think you could have replaced an act like Afrojack (has he gotten bigger since last year anyway?) with a readily available act Digweed/2manydjs/Fatboy Slim and it would have given it a bit more balance. Amon Tobin: ISAM is going to be amazing though, even if its in the Mojave.

Underworld are engaged with Olympics, so were never on. Chem Bros just played. The others are engaged with EDC.Not a lot of choice. Chances are Guetta, SHM etc all cost a fair amount. The electronic acts cost a premium now thanks to EDC.

lalalalala. Prince was a late add in 08 as was above and beyond. Etienne, Devendra, Plump DJs, M.I.A., Chem Bros in 09. Jonsi in 10 is the only one i can think of. Last year i don't know. I can't think of any others right now.

People bitching about the EDM lineup, yes I agree it could use a few more names but Coachella has 3 of the 6 Ultra Headliners and 4 of the 2nd liners...This is not an electronic festival, if you want to rave all day go to an electronic festival.

Or just take a lot of E and forget the afternoon like you most likely will anyway.

Yeah I would love Basement Jax, Kraftwerk, Fat Boy Slim, Aoki, Digweed, but if you want all these high end artists you miss the up and comers. In my opinion the ticket prices should be $50 more which would also help with getting a few bigger names, and maybe getting Indio to allow music an hour or two later.

It's a good lineup overall. What's clearly missing is solid artists in the 2nd line. Nothing against the ones on that line this year, but they would be 3rd liners in past editions.I'm looking forward to it and I'll be flying all the way from the south coast of Brazil (again) to attend this year.

@2:50Yes in the past the bands on the 2nd line would be billed lower, but 7 years ago Black Keys were way lower.Bon Iver, Florence, SHM, ATDI, Pulp, Artic Monkeys are pretty names. No way are they 3rd liners today.

@2:55Hmmm I don't know. Take 2010 for example. That 2nd line was solid. This year the 2nd and 3rd seem to be more leveled, nothing that really makes you wow. But like I've said, it's a great lineup and the undercard is amazing!

Since it was released a couple months ago, the latest Black Keys album has sold just about as well as the latest Radiohead album. Radiohead and the Black Keys are playing similar sized venues on their current tours, but clearly, only one is a headliner. Fuck off.

I have prety much followed the Black Keys since Thickfreakness. Saw them at the Troubadour in 04 and 06 and they tore the place apart, many differnt clubs around LA after that and were fantastic. Saw them last year at the fest and in 09... meh...just ok. NOT headliner worthy! They just cant fill a huge outdoor venue with that type of sound.

Out of curiosity, what one or two EDM acts can they realistically book (no exclusives with EDC, no ultra rare implausibilities, no crazy expensive acts, and no fucking French robots in a pyramid) that would take this lineup to the next level? They aren't dropping SHM or Guetta, and frankly 2010 was just as cheesy (Guetta, Deadmau5, Benassi, Kaskade) but benefitted simply from having Plastikman and Orbital. We got Amon Tobin, who else is realistic? I can't really think of too many names outside of a Richie Hawtin project.

@ 4:18..fuck that, there are dozens of quality DJs and producers who would cost very little compared to Guetta and the like...we don't need Hawtin or Daft Punk, we need smaller names like Four Tet or Scuba or Eats Everything or Maya Jane Coles or Zabiela or blah blah blah...anything decent to offset this SHM/AVICII/Guetta madness..

Carl Cox? John Digweed? Hell even some of the older tech/progressive trance artists like Paul Oakenfold or Christopher Lawrence would be better than the cheese that they will have in the sahara this year.

DJ's polls are a fools errand, but you could do far worse than just randomly pulling names from the Resident Advisor top 100. Or the Resident Advisor top 20 live acts.

And lets stop w/ the "exclusive to EDC" nonsense. EDC is, has been and likely forever will be garbage from top to bottom. With the curious exception of 1 or 2 artists/yr. And this is the crux of the matter. Why the hell is GV trying so hard to copy it?

Moving forward, Coachella is likely a sure sell-out on a yearly basis (barring truly awful headliners or a tectonic shift in the overall booking policy). Why waste huge somes of money booking clownish EDM if its not absolutely needed to move tickets?

Of course, its possible that this dreck is in fact pre-requisite to a sell-out. That may be the most depressing thought of all.

At first glance i was a little saddened by not seeing some names I had really hoped for but in combing through music by the artists listed for each day I get more and more excited with every hour of listening.

The last two years I had a ton of acts each day I wanted to see off the bat, this year has been fun as far as discovering new music I probably would have otherwise missed out on or looked over.

If there are some late adds please let them be Aphex - Digweed - Goldfrapp - Little Dragon and a good amount of dnb in the dome!

Vonstroke & Maya Jane Coles would be amazing DJ adds (& both came up in 2011), although even if they were booked they'd naturally get shit early timeslots because they actually play real, good house & minimal music (which none of the bro-steppers wanna hear).

Like I've said before, I seriously hope Black Keys were a substitute for Black Sabbath when they bowed out. And I hope they can still strengthen Friday. Hell, KOL last year seemed like a better choice, and I fucking hate them.

The thing I like about this lineup is that it is completely different than last year (black keys aside). There are so many bands I haven't seen or had to skip in the past at Coachella. Its another stellar lineup, and as long as you don't judge a lineup solely on its top 2 lines....this will again be the lineup of the year for American festivals. FACT

Anon @746 Lollapalooza has a better lineup almost every year (speaking of the undercard) but that's ruined by whoever is in charge of scheduling. They need to figure out how to stagger the times. Especially for such a big venue.

Yes, because 14 year old girls absolutely LOOOOVE Soundgarden over Kings of Leon, right?

Anybody complaining about Lolla's scheduling needs to shoot themselves in the face. Bands get more time, and the sides of the park are set up much better to accomodate rock fans on one side of the park while indie are on the other. Complain about Lolla's EDC lineup all you want, but they treat indie and rock fans right by having bands you actually want to see rather than bands you pretend to want to see to be hip.

Apparently none of you have been to Lolla. They get better up and coming bands sooner than Coachella. Last time I went to Lolla was 09. Look at the bands and conflicts I saw or faced.

Fri:Other Lives (in 09! this will be their first coachella appearance)Black Joe Lewis & the HoneybearsWhite Lies (other side of the park)Bon IverSTS9 (other side of the park)Fleet Foxes (other side of park)Decemberists vs Thievery Corp vs. Peter Bjorn and John (watched Decemberists so I could get a good spot for Andrew Bird)Andrew Bird vs. Simian Mobile DiscoDepeche Mode (other side of Park)

08 and 07 were very similar. Grabbing tons of great bands but putting them up against each other. Coachella is a better festival because they think about how to schedule their artists. Been going to both since 06 so I am speaking from some experience.

Calm down people that was not an attack on you. I agree Coachella is MUCH better. That was the point of my original post! Lolla gets some better up and coming bands every year but they can't schedule for shit. Plus it's filled with shirtless bros throwing Bud Light Lime all over Grant Park.

The new message board is not ready, yet. We are not trying to evade criticism. The message board only serves a minority portion of the entire Coachella audience. While it is an annoyance that it is not available, we are still available to address concerns and answer questions via our Facebook.com/Coachella, Twitter.com/Coachella and the main Coachella.com contact page.

nah, they could have mentioned the "maintenance" in advance, and the intentionally misleading bullshit about "24 to 36 hours" further indicates that they are attempting to prevent criticism...seriously weak move on Coachella's part.

I don't really see an explanation for the boards being down other than trying to avoid the annual shit-talking that goes on directly after the release and before everyone fully digests the lineup and realized it's great. Switching to a new board doesn't take anywhere near this long...there's obviously an ulterior motive here.

Most of the boardies hate the lineup when it comes out every year and bitch about it (although come around to it later). I doubt that's why Coachella hasn't updated it. If anything, it's because they don't want to deal with the onslaught of Facebook idiots who come running to complain after it sells out tomorrow and try to say it is Coachella's fault that there is so much demand.

My prediction is that the boardies whose #1 destination is the Sahara hate it, and everybody else digs it. If you replaced even a couple Sahara names with Hawtin/Sasha/Groove Armada/whoever else they are jizzing about, this would be heralded as the best lineup ever. GYBE, At the Drive In, Refused, Jeff Mangum, Pulp, Madness, RADIOHEAD, Mazzy Star, Amon Tobin: ISAM? Too much rare stuff.

Tomorrow is going to be an onslaught. Especially for those few remaining weekend 1 tickets. They aren't using ticketmaster this year, so they are going to be handling ridiclous amounts of traffic. When you consider Radiohead isn't doing too many shows and no LA dates, plus the EDM mainstream lineup, and the fact that Dre and Snoop reuniting is huge in LA, (plus all these rare acts like Pulp, Refused, ATDI), I really think this might sell out in a day. Both weekends.

Part of the boards being down probably has to do with them not wanting to handle all the traffic on the boards and selling tickets. The boards will be back up by the weekend, I take it.

Plus I think the boards and their Radiohead/Pulp/Dre loving will be nicer to the lineup this year than most.

But, then I got to thinking about it. I bet Guetta and Kaskade close the Sahara on Sat. That will take a good chunk of the crowd (and most of the annoying people) to give us a little more space for Radiohead. They figure Radiohead at hipster-filled Coachella = clusterfuck. They may as well get some huge DJs Radiohead fans don't want to see and put them in the Sahara. It might actually be a brilliant move.

Radiohead is playing the Hollywood Bowl the day before Coachella, aren't they?

Plus, I prefer big city fests (like Lolla) where you can see amazing things and eat great local food more than the "hang out in the desert and sleep in a tent" thing. But that's a personal choice - since I'm not high all weekend, I like to have a few other options.

bahahahah I told everyone to get on stub hub and get tix for weekend one on monday and not to wait till today. now to get two festival passes and a camping pass your already looking at paying $900 more than i did on monday. if you didn't listen and tried to act like you know everything.... hahahahahah your an IDIOT cause i warned you!!

i paid $1200 for two tix and camping only $500 over retail on monday. right now the same thing on stub hubbub is over $2300. I also didn't have to worry if tickets sold out this morning or if i would have to get extremely gauged today by a scalper. also you didn't get any camping. So good luck with that one, its now $600 on scalper websites.

^^ revise that.. i only paid $350 over retail. thats what some people pay in gas or a plane tickets/rental car trying to get to the festival. I live in OC and its a pretty cheap drive so i think i did alright.